Box Score

NEWARK, NJ—Chris Flores scored 14 of his game-high 19 points in the second half, as NJIT pulled away from visiting St. Joseph's of Brooklyn, 78-50, in men's basketball Monday night in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
 
The Highlanders (4-5) held a 32-25 halftime lead, but they dominated the final 20 minutes, outscoring the Bears (4-6) by 46-25 in the second half.
 
NJIT connected on 69.2 percent of its second-half shots from the field (18-26) and taking away 3-for-8 shooting on 3-pointers in the half, the Highlanders clicked on 15-of-18 (83.3 percent) inside the arc after the break.
 
Flores, who shot 8-for-11 from the field in the game and 6-for-7 in the second half, was not the only Highlander with a hot hand. Senior forward Isaiah Wilkerson scored 13 of his 18 points in the second half and shot 5-for-7 in 14 second-half minutes.
 
Wilkerson was also NJIT's game-leader with six rebounds and four assists and he and Flores each made three steals.
 
Wilkerson's 18 points give him exactly 1,200 in his career, which is 14th all-time at NJIT. He passed Sal Gagliardo, who scored 1,192 points for the Highlanders from 1981 to 1985.
 
Junior PJ Miller, with 52 career starts in 59 previous appearances, came off the NJIT bench for 13 points on Monday after missing the previous two games with a knee injury sustained in the first half at Army on November 30. Senior center Ryan Regis blocked four shots for the Highlanders.
 
St. Joseph's (4-6) got 10 points apiece from junior forward Jan Rogowski and freshman forward David Louison, who also pulled down a game-high seven rebounds. Louison, an active 6-foot-4, came in averaging a double-double (12.6 points and 11.6 rebounds) for the Division III Bears. Rogowski, who had an 18-point, 18-rebound double-double in his last game, finished with six rebounds against the Highlanders.
 
St. Joseph's senior guard Justin Gist, who came in averaging a team-best 15.3 points per game for the season and nearly 16 points in 60 career games, was not a factor against NJIT, managing seven points on 2-for-12 shooting from field.
 
The Highlanders, who led by as many as 30 points, a margin they reached three times in the last four minutes, held at least a 20-point advantage for the last 10:28.
 
In addition to the dramatically improved shooting from the first-half (10-for-30) to missing only eight tries in the second half, the Highlanders noticeably upped their defensive intensity coming out of the locker room after the break.
 
They held the Bears to identical 7-for-27 shooting from the field in each half, but the Highlanders made six second-half steals and their advantage in points-off-of-turnovers in the second half (17-5) gave them a 23-7 lead in that stat for the game.
 
St. Joseph's, a scrappy team that last season vs. NJIT fought back from a 17-point halftime deficit to close to within four points heading into the last minute of a game the Highlanders eventually won, 65-57, stayed in contention throughout the first half Monday night.
 
Although they never led after scoring the game's first two points on a pair of Rogowski free throws, the Bears took a series of first-half blows, but bounced back each time.
 
Leading by two, 8-6, NJIT went on an 11-0 run capped by Miller's jump shot that made it 19-6 for the Highlanders with 10:27 on the first-half clock.
 
The home team still led by 12 after Sammy Schickel's bucket pushed the score to 28-16 at 3:10, but St. Joseph's finished the half with a 9-4 run and trailed 32-27 at the buzzer.
 
The first-half stats showed the Bears with a 21-17 team rebounding lead, as Rogowski and Louison pulled five boards apiece. They also somewhat offset their 7-for-27 field goal shooting with 10-for-12 work at the foul line, as Louison made all four of his tries there and Rogowski and Ismael Dabo were each 3-for-4.
 
NJIT, too, shot 10-for-12 at the line in the first half, but only Miller (4-for-6 from the field), with a game-leading nine points had shown any scoring consistency in the opening 20 minutes.
 
Rogowski's seven points were tops for St. Joseph's in the second half.
 
The Bears actually got the first points of the second half and closed their gap to five points, 32-25, when Gist hit a jump shot 26 seconds in.
 
However, NJIT hit three straight shots, two by Wilkerson, and pushed its advantage to double-digits, 38-27, with 17:47 remaining.
 
Dabo scored a layup for the Bears, but NJIT spurted for six more points, including 20-second sequence by Flores that featured a 3-pointer from the top of the key and a steal and breakaway dunk that gave his team a 15-point lead.
 
St. Joseph's did not go silent, but the Bears could not keep up with the Highlanders' pace and the NJIT lead grew to 20, 56-36, on a pair of Wilkerson free throws at 10:28, to 26 on a Flores layup at 6:57, and to 30, 74-44, on Daquan Holiday's layup at 3:47.
 
NJIT will take a break from competition before returning to action on Thursday, December 22 at 7:30 pm, when the Highlanders visit Rutgers.
 
The Highlanders, who lost their previous two games to Big East opponents Georgetown and Seton Hall, will round out their taste of competition against that power conference with the game at Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights, who have faced and beaten NJIT each of the last four years, topped the Highlanders on December 1, 2010, by a score of 66-54.